Updated: Vols safety done for the year with ACL tear

Posted by Ben Kercheval on September 17, 2012, 12:15 PM EST

AP

Tennessee may have lost to SEC East rival Florida last Saturday (extending the Gators’ streak against the Vols to eight straight years), but it may have lost its starting safety for much longer in the process.

Derek Dooley has yet to specify what the injury is, but could do so tomorrow during his regularly scheduled press conference. During his TV show Sunday, Dooley said Randolph’s injury “didn’t look good.”

Randolph was the team’s leading tackler heading into the Florida game with 15 tackles and exited with 22 total tackles. He also made the SEC all-freshman team last year with 55 tackles. Obviously, there’s no overstating how tough a loss this would be if Randolph is out for the year, or any amount of time for that matter.

It also adds to the fact that Dooley cannot catch a break whatsoever.

(Hat tip: govolsxtra.com)

Updated 9/17 @12:10 p.m. ET: Derek Dooley confirmed to media on Monday that Randolph has a torn ACL and will miss the rest of the season. The speculative prognosis of the injury hadn’t been promising, but this is obviously a tough break for the Vols.

Second, I hope CDD wins out the rest of the season. I really do. His record so far is terrible though. At what point do you put away excuses and expect the highly paid coach to win?

Everyone seems to like Dooley, especially people who are not UT fans. I do not know of another historically top tier SEC program that would not have fired him by now. Compare him to other SEC coaches of the last decade. Ron Zook was 16-8 (.667) in conference play after 3 seasons. Dooley is currently sitting at 4-13 (.235) against the SEC opponents. That is awful. Zook was canned before his third season was over. Dooley’s wins are against Ole Miss, Vanderbilt and Kentucky. These are the worst programs in the SEC. Mike Shula won 10 games in his third season at Alabama. Bama fans felt no sorrow in letting him go the next year after a mediocre season.

If any coach were performing like this at Bama, Florida, LSU, Georgia or Auburn he would already be gone. Maybe it is not fair… but I have trouble feeling sorry for anyone who has a clause in their contract that stipulates they get paid a four million dollar buyout for being under performing at their job.

At first look I thought it was a bad sprain at worse. sucks the kid is going to be out for the rest of the yr.

@ Price

While I agree with your overall point I think Tenn cut dooley some slack because who he replaced. Zook replaced a legend Dooley replaced Kiffin. Kiffin leaving the way he did made them scared to drop him. Just to out and bring in another high profile name who can use them.

He has to win this year though, I doubt 6-6 or worse will keep his job. Also he has to beat either ga or sc. He have to show he is no longer on the lvl with vandy and uk and can compete with uf,ga,sc. It’s one thing to see improvement on the field it’s another thing to improve Tenn’s win column.

lakesidegator says:Sep 17, 2012 8:10 AM

Where are all the blustering, smack-talking Vol fans now? Double digits AGAIN! Buuuuaaaaaha-
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahaha [passed out on floor, out of breath].

I don’t blame you for that. You guys have owned us for four decades. It is ridiculous. No Vol fan with two brain cells to rub together should talk before this game. Tennessee is 6-20 in the rivalry over the last 40 yrs (4-20 is you discount the Zook yrs… perhaps losing to TN is why Gators demanded Zook be fired so quickly)!

I wish our fan base felt the same sense of urgency others do. I did not see Bama improve until they finally demanded the school get a dumptruck full of money and hire the best (make an offer Saban could not refuse). As much as I am disgusted with that mentality it is hard to argue with the results.

Dooley can get to 6 wins simply by beating NC State, Ga State, Akron, Troy, Vanderbilt and Kentucky… The administration made sure the schedule was loaded with OOC patsies…

Virtually any decent collegiate coach in the country could beat those teams just by virtue of coaching at TN(facilities, stadium etc). There is no reason to pay someone 2.5 mill a year for that level of performance. So I agree. 6-6 does not cut it. Anything less than 8-9 wins and Dooley should be fired… and yes I realize that is asking the impossible.

@lakesidegator
I liked the victory just as much as any Gator fan, but I think Gator fans should wait and watch a little more before gloating. We still have to play LSU, UGA, SC, and FSU. We need to win some of those before getting our swagger back

Yeah, we have the stadium, facilities, and fan base. What we dont have yet is any depth, and it showed dramatically in the 3rd and 4th quarters. Like Dooley said very honestly in the post game presser…”they wore us down.”

There is a dramatic dropoff from our 1’s to the 2’s, Florida doesnt have that problem. Florida also didnt lose 45 scholly players in the 21 month span after Meyer left. Yes, 45 players, and the roster is still 6 men short. Imagine if we had 6 more seniors on this team. Furthermore, of Kiffin’s only class there are FIVE guys remaining. Let that sink in.

Our OL still needs work, one year in the S&C program is not enough. If you cant block the front 7 it doesn’t matter how many 1st rounders you have at skill positions. We need two more recruiting classes, thats bottom line. And Dooley will be back next year, wont be any more buyouts in Knoxville for a long time.